Kestrel
:"Chill, I got this." :—''Kestrel'' Joanna "Kestrel" Crécerelle was a bounty hunter from Telos who made a name for herself doing steady work for the Empire. However, she had earned the ire of her employers after tampering with private data on Korriban and was forced to flee to Tatooine where she met and joined her partner-in-crime, Mynock. Biography Early life Kestrel was born as Joanna Crécerelle on Telos, but soon embraced her life in the underworld by rising up to the occasion and becoming a competent and well-respected bounty hunter in her own right. The Adventure Begins Unlike most bounty hunters working for the Empire, Kestrel held herself in high morals and accountability, a trait her employers found a liability and one that would ultimately cost Kestrel her good graces with the Sith. Leaving Korriban behind, she would join up with the trooper and smuggler outlaws, Trooh and Mynock, on Tatooine. There, she began a partnership that would last for well over a decade. Holocron of Fate She played a part in evacuating the crew of the Centennial Turkey, as well as taking a powerful holocron they picked up on Coruscant during the escape. This skirmish resulted in the presumed death of John "Mynock" Konteego, prompting Kestrel to assume a leadership position fulltime. The Outlaw Heroes In Mynock's absence, Kestrel proved to be a capable leader of the crew, evading both the authorities of the Republic and the Empire. Ultimately, her efforts proved futile as Steve seized control of their holocron, prompting Jan's exile from the Jedi Order. The Dark Science Kestrel's adventures with her crew took her in direct opposition against Steve's horrific experiments, witnessing the effects of his research firsthand on Ilum and Tatooine. It was during her return to the desert planet that she saw the first signs of Mynock's survival in the form of tribalistic worship by the Force mutants of Steve. With some luck, she managed to find her long lost partner and at his behest, the pair intercepted her ship and rallied the crew against shutting Steve's entire operation down. Flight of the Mynock Split up from the rest, Kestrel and Mynock searched for the whereabouts of Steve's last remaining base with the help of her droid detective, Columbo. Their trail led them to Taris where Kestrel fought through hordes of rakghouls to find herself at the entrance of the Sith Lord's hidden sanctum. While Steve was not physically present, it was there that the pair came to a terrible realization of Steve's endgame. He aimed to use the powers of the holocron, directed through a formidable space station, to forcibly convert the galaxy's populace into Force-sensitives. While the rest of the crew sought help from the armies of the Republic and the Empire, Kestrel distrusted the honesty of their actions and rightfully so. The Republic aimed to use the powers of the holocron for themselves much like the Sith, intent on creating a personal army of Jedi Crusaders to combat the Sith in the wake of the guarded and pacifistic approach of the Jedi Order. Kestrel and Mynock made their way across the space station, and amidst the chaos of the battle between the Republic and the Sith, her partner shot the holocron and cracked its delicate construct for good. Slipping by and coming face to face with Steve, the pair managed to dissuade him from his goals and snap out of his lunacy. However, the weapon was already fired and the unstable energies fried the station controls, causing it to plummet to the icy planet of Hoth below. Kestrel's arm was lost in the crash. A Fluke of Nature On the run from both sides of the war for the trouble they had caused, Kestrel and Mynock laid low on Hoth alongside their new ally and hoped to wait their considerable bounties up. However, one guy from the underworld had managed to find his way to the infamous outlaws — a man known by the name of The Fluke. In a twist of events, The Fluke was convinced by their plight and joined their cause with a plan of his own. Using The Fluke's knowledge of his employers, the four of them planned to steal the bounty money for themselves. A raid on the palace of the Hutt crime lord responsible for holding the money proved to be successful, but Kestrel and Mynock were forced to relinquish ownership of the Turkey in the process. The Fallen Knights A decade had passed since their final confrontation with Steve above Hoth, and during that time, the outlaw duo was busy following up leads on the existence of a second holocron bearing a similar nature to the first. Their adventures led them to the ancient Sith tombs of Dxun, as well as the Rakatan tombs of Dantooine — both locations ending up short as the dark agents of Darth Antaganis were closing in on them despite a fading bounty. Legacy of the Force As Mynock was busy cross-referencing and accounting for known data on Steve's abandoned base on Ilum, Kestrel made her way to Jedha's holy city in search of the holocron's possible location. Behind the Scenes :"While Mynock was undoubtedly the central character, it tended to be Kestrel who solved problems. So, while Mynock regularly provided the inspiration for whatever adventure they were going on, it was Kestrel who would lead the group through it." :—''Lankist'' Kestrel was the third playable character to be created during the original adventure's run. While not among Lankist's original plans for the comic, she went on to become the dual protagonist alongside Mynock and arguably the most capable of the band. Trivia *She is eerily similar to Missy in the sense that both were conceived organically, and neither were present in the original rosters conceived by their respective authors. *Like Missy, she is the third protagonist introduced in her respective series, as well as the first playable female character. *She wears Mynock's original jacket. *She was Alamact's favorite hero from the old cast of characters, most notably due to her leadership qualities and her cheeky banter with Mynock. Some of these qualities reflect on Saber and Missy in the sequel. *Lankist describes her as being Mynock's ideal. She is everything what Mynock wants from an outlaw life. Appearances *''Men of Conviction'' *''Sweet Bucks of General Fux''